Online panel: Covid-19 and the new temporal order of capitalism

A window into chaos? Covid-19 and the new temporal order of capitalism.
UCL/IAS online event, 26 January 2021, 4:00 pm–5:30 pm GMT.


The UCL Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) is running an online panel discussion on global capitalism in Covid times.

How do our late capitalist societies imagine their future under conditions of chaotic uncertainty? What does the Covid-19 crisis reveal about our fractured experiences of time in an already precarious and anxious present? To cope with the moment’s queasy volatility, societies need narratives orienting them towards an imagined future. From complex epidemiological forecasts and market volatility indices, to social media’s predictive algorithms and anti-vax conspiracy theories, the narratives on offer today can seem increasingly opaque and disorienting. Rather than offering more clarity, they often compound existing uncertainty, therefore opening ‘a window into chaos’. What epistemological ruptures with past assumptions are rendered possible by this opening? This panel event tries to make sense of these developments in the temporal order of capitalism and their implications for critical thinking during the current crisis.

Participants

  • Arjun Appadurai (New York University)
  • Jens Beckert (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne)
  • Rahel Jaeggi (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
  • Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou (UCL)
  • Linsey McGoey (University of Essex)

The event is free and you can book to attend here. More information available on the event page.

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